Delay elements are well known and employed in a variety of circuit applications. For example, a circuit known as a Gm-C (transconductance or transconductance-capacitance) filter may be utilized as a delay element. However, one drawback of the Gm-C filter is that its operation is generally limited in speed (e.g., less than 900 MHz) and, therefore, has limited applicability to high-bandwidth, multi-gigahertz systems.
Another example of a delay element is a transmission line. However, transmission line based delay elements may have a number of drawbacks, such as area inefficiency, dependence on accurate electromagnetic modeling, and significant power consumption. As a result, there is a need for improved delay element techniques.